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Katha Pollitt and Andrew Sullivan

Katha,

So the nub is: given that we do not yet have adequate public schools for some minority kids, do we remedy this now by discriminating in their favor in college applications? My answer is: no. It's the wrong remedy for a different wrong, and often, I think, a cop-out to avoid doing exactly what we both agree needs to be done in public school education. And it's unfair to people who have had no part in this injustice, and no desire to perpetuate it. And, frankly, to sound like Newt, I think it's a ridiculous hyperbole to say that African-Americans have never experienced equality for two seconds in America. Among black applicants to Berkeley, which is the example at hand, a large number are middle-class kids, whose advantages often far outweigh first-generation Asian immigrants. Those Asian immigrants often have parents who don't even speak English and a public high school education which is often just as rudimentary. (And one of the truly stunning facts about test scores is that differentials between blacks and Asians actually increase the higher up the socio-economic ladder you go. How do you account for that?)

I guess, again, we have different models of what government should do. I don't think the government should involve itself in recompensing for every past wrong, especially if it means penalizing innocent people in the present. I do think it should be scrupulous fair in its treatment of its citizens from now on, which is why, for example, I'm for equal marriage rights and against affirmative action. It's the same argument, as the courageous Ward Connerly has also recognized. No government discrimination in favor of anyone--whether they're black or straight or female or white. And the rest we should let to the market and splendid human diversity to sort out.

Ah, if Burke were still around...

Andrew

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